Theologian: Pro-Pride parishes should not call themselves a church!
(Photo: Unsplash)Theologian Carl Trueman has condemned the decision by elements of the Church of England to embrace LGBT ideology and theology.
In a piece for First Things, Trueman recounts an encounter with the notice board of St James’s Church in Piccadilly during Pride Month.
The church, it seems, had opted against a perfunctory marking of Pride and instead committed itself to a whole year of LGBTQ-themed events.
Queer services, movie nights and Christmas Carol services were all on offer, as were a range of drag events and a special talk on “the next generation of queer priests”.
Trueman suggested that in its total embrace of the LGBTQ cause, the church was not only failing to uphold biblical truth but was at risk of looking like the embarrassing adult who is trying too hard to get down with the kids.
“[The] irony is that churches that try to ape the tastes of the day in order to speak to the times typically fail to do so," he said.
"They simply offer the standard fare of the surrounding culture in a cringe-inducing religious idiom and often with an enthusiasm that aspires to be shocking but is merely out-of-date.
"Pride rises in progressive Anglicanism in London at the very moment its grip on June appears to be weakening.”
Trueman’s observation about falling support for Pride appears to have been backed up by a BBC report into Pride events across the country.
According to the report, a number of Pride events have been cancelled or scaled back. Bristol Pride said that it had seen a 25 per cent drop in sponsorships. Meanwhile Surrey Pride cancelled its own events due to a drop in corporate sponsorship.
Among the whole host of Pride, queer and drag events listed on the church noticeboard, Trueman noted that there was no mention of “God, Christ, nor the cross”. He described this as a “dramatic but tragic example of what happens when Christianity loses sight of its transcendent purpose”.
“If Pride Year is allowed to stand as a liturgical reality in any parish, that parish should not call itself a church," he said.
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